The hotel group MEININGER Hotels strengthens its presence in the capital of Europe and inaugurates its second hotel in Belgium with today's opening of the MEININGER Hotel Bruxelles Gare du Midi. Within walking distance of the country's largest railway station, Gare du Midi, the new hotel building is located in the heart of the Belgian metropolis. 150 rooms with a total of 678 beds now welcome individual, group and business travellers. In addition to the MEININGER Hotel Bruxelles City Center, which opened in 2013, the hotel group now has two hotels in the Belgian metropolis. It is already the fourth hotel for the Benelux region: The group's largest hotel, the MEININGER Hotel Amsterdam City West, and the MEININGER Hotel Amsterdam Amstel, which opened last year, are both located in the Netherlands. The opening of the MEININGER Hotel Bruxelles Gare du Midi stands for the execution of the hotel group's accelerated growth strategy: MEININGER expects to grow its number of beds by 150 percent and operate 34,000 beds internationally by March 2024.
Delicious chocolate, the Atomium and of course Manneken Pis - Brussels has a lot to offer: From the UNESCO World Heritage Site Grote Markt to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium to the European Parliament, Brussels is a vibrant, multicultural and international metropolis. "Brussels' colourful mix precisely reflects the philosophy of the MEININGER hotel group," says Hannes Spanring, CEO of MEININGER Hotels. "Brussels is a magnet for tourists, not only because it's the seat of the EU, but also because of its diverse art and cultural landscape. We also feel that here. In our first Brussels hotel, the MEININGER Hotel Bruxelles City Center, we were able to record an excellent occupancy rate of 96 percent last year," Spanring explains. "We are all the more pleased to celebrate our second opening in the city and have our accelerated growth strategy taking further momentum. Besides our strong opening pipeline with destinations like Zurich, Paris and Washington D.C. we're also reviewing more than 100 potential hotel projects in Europe alone."
Just a few minutes from the Gare du Midi train station, where long-distance trains from major European cities such as London, Paris or Amsterdam stop, the new hotel is in a prime city location. Tram and metro stations are within walking distance and the historic center of Grand-Place is just a short walk away. 6,700 square meters comprises the above-ground gross floor area of the new building. Following the MEININGER hybrid concept, this house also has a flexible room structure: from double rooms to private multi-bed rooms to a bed in a dormitory, guests can choose their own style. Reception, lobby, lounge, breakfast room and bar as well as the typical MEININGER guest kitchen and game zone are located on the ground floor. There are also 30 on-site parking spaces. The interior design takes up Brussels' dynamic art scene. "With our interior design we would like to commemorate one of the most famous sons of the city, the painter and representative of surrealism René Magritte," adds Thomas Hagemann, COO of MEININGER Hotels. "Our interior design concept takes our guests on a journey through an illusionary world," continues Hagemann.
The MEININGER Hotel Bruxelles Gare du Midi was realized together with Nelson Canal.
For the hotel group, it is already the fourth new opening this year. Only two weeks ago, on 24 July, the company opened its first hotel in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the MEININGER Hotel Heidelberg Hauptbahnhof. On March 25, the MEININGER Hotel München Olympiapark, the second MEININGER Hotel in the Isar metropolis, opened its doors and a few days earlier, on March 18, the hotel group celebrated its premiere in Hungary with the MEININGER Budapest Great Market Hall. This year, two further MEININGER hotel openings in Europe - in Paris and Lyon - are also planned to mark MEININGER's entry into the French market.
